


Fast Forward to the Past

by Kpooper



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Action, Angst, Badass, Baldroy's Companionship, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2018-09-08
Packaged: 2019-07-08 06:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15924662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kpooper/pseuds/Kpooper
Summary: Johanna Lee of the twenty-first century finds out that she should never scoff at superstition only after she ends up in the middle of a field raining blood and bullets, half-way through her flight. Although Johanna desperately wants to get back, she has to face her greatest enemies in order to do so. Work and Procrastination. And she's so much better in the latter than the former.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Synopsis  
> Johanna Lee of the twenty-first century finds out that she should never scoff at superstition only after she ends up in the middle of a field raining blood and bullets, half-way through her flight.  
> She becomes a prisoner of war, a nurse, a swab, a pick-pocket, a baker's assistant, an errand boy, a fugitive and then a Phantomhive (slave) maid. Not that she's very good at any of them.  
> Although Johanna desperately wants a way back, she has to face her greatest enemies in order to do so. Work and Procrastination. And she's so much better in the latter than the former. As if that isn't enough, she's got some bratty kid with a heart-breaking backstory and his suspiciously perfect butler digging into her past. What happens when they find out she never existed before the year 1886?  
>  _[Time Travel]_  
>  Desitnation - 19th century  
> ________________________________________  
> ~A/N~  
> The story title is a wordplay of the title of the film 'Back to the Future'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Disclaimer:** All Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) characters and canon plot belongs to Yana Toboso. I own all OCs and events that solely occur in my plot within this fanfiction. Any plot or character similar to other works of fiction or existing person(s) is completely coincidental unless I say so otherwise. Please don't copy without permission.

**Chapter 1 - When you curse upon a star**

It was a starry night when the plane took off from the ground. Johanna Lee had never been one to gaze at the night sky because it was always cloudy and polluted with only the city lights in the far horizon to help illuminate the small town. But this time she took note of how the skies were so clear, and how the moon glowed just as brightly as her face probably did.

Half a week prior, her mother called from across the country to inform her grandparents about finally finding a stable job and that they can move into the city with her. “It’s a full-time job with paid accommodation. It can’t get any better than this.” Upon hearing this, Johanna upon hearing this darkly muttered, “She said that two months ago too. There’s no such thing is company loyalty to her. It’s the third time this year already, so who’s to say there won’t be a fourth.”

The fourteen year old teenager, had recently until then been feeling heavily ignored by her mother -who was very conveniently hard to keep in touch with anyway - had gone into a temporary state of depression. It wasn’t until she opened one of the envelopes from the post-office in the early weekend morning that she finally found it in herself to put away her overdramatic mode in favour of pure delight as she held a school magazine and enrollment receipt along with three plane tickets.

Apparently, her mother was able to lightly furnish the small yet comfy apartment downtown. The dark haired girl was too excited to notice that her mother had once again had not written anything on the letter about her, but too happy about the transfer to care anyway.

She remembered sobbing after she informed her long-time friends from school and saw their downcast face as they found out that another one of them would be leaving for the city. They tried to assure her that they'd keep in touch on social media and so began the awkward but heart-warming combination of light laughs and tear-stained faces. Weird, how you can go from overly enthusiastic, to heavy-hearted, to anxious and back again to lively.

Despite her still-reeling mind, Johanna only had one dominant thought as they flew above the clouds that night. She spotted a bright streak of light cross her porthole window.

' _I wish that my life would get a lot more interesting by the end of this flight._ '

She then scoffed at herself, ' _Idiot. It's not like my wish is gonna be granted. Entrusting your hopes into some dying star is so stupid. Some children's bedtime story that is! Me? Childish? No way._ ' Johanna began to slide down the shutter, when a light twinkled in the direction of the shooting star that disappeared from view as quickly as it had appeared.

Too bad she missed it. But then again even if she hadn't it's not like she would have been able to foresee any of the following events.

Johanna drew out a long sigh that had her grandma look over at her before she nodded at her grandma's needless worry. ' _It'd be nice to have something to depend on though. To hope on_ ,' the thought fluttered lazily at the back of her mind as her eyelids drooped and her vision went dark, just like the dimming lights of the plane.

 

-

 

"Yo, Baldroy," a militant called as he entered the tent, throwing a box of cigarettes towards the aforementioned man. The blonde man raised his arm to catch the box from his place without lifting a single eyelid.

"Thanks, bud. Anything else came in for me or just this?" Baldroy asked fiddling with the top of the box and proceeding to take out a stick. He held it expertly between his fingers as he lit it and placed it on his lip. "Maaaan, it's hot down here." He chewed on the end of the cigarette, using the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead and temples. His other hand lay strewn across the armrest of his seat.

"If it's so hot, you shouldn't be takin' a smoke in this heat. Here." A canteen of cool water hit Baldroy straight in the chest and fell unto his lap, knocking the breath out of his lungs. "Nothing else for ya came in. Just went into town myself this mornin'."

"Maaaan, that hurts," Baldroy grinned, getting up from his seat and hardly pressing the edge of the canteen to the other man's chest.

"A-A-Aaarghh!"

"Heh. What comes 'round goes 'round. Anyways, you can't be damaging my body whenever you like. I can't do my duties if I'm not well, ya hear Johnny?"

"Right. What duties? And so much for takin' a joke."

The radio buzzed to life stealing the two men's attention from each other. "-llo? Hello?"

"Speaking," Baldroy replied.

"Outbreak of a fight. Just started a minute ago. South-east end of the town. No casualties yet but it might get bad. We're in need of back up. There's no time to inform the higher ups."

"Damn'it. We just got here this week. Ah well, so much for 'initial dispatch team'. I thought we'd just be scoutin' the area." John grunted.

"C'mon. We gotta gear up quick. You know how quickly these sort 'a stuff escalates. I just sent an alert signal to the main troops. Not that we'll be hearin' from them anytime soon though."

 

-

 

Johanna woke up to wet thighs and a shaking seat. The small airplane was trembling more than should be, causing the plastic cup of water on the tray table to tip over spilling its contents on her lap. She completely snapped awake when the pilot's voice rang through the speakers repeatedly telling the passengers to remain seated, and fasten their seat belts, and informing them of the obvious air turbulence.

A passing flight attendant took her cup and asked her to put up her tray to which Johanna quietly obeyed. Johanna eyed her grandma's hand that was tightly gripping her grandfather's forearm as the plane continued to rattle. Closing her eyes as she rushed a multitude of silent prayers to whatever deity would listen, she tightly wrung her hands tightly together.

A lady behind Johanna keep laughing hysterically every time the plane seemed to drop in the sky. The laughs suddenly turned into coughs and then retching as the woman threw up the semi-digested airplane food all over the back of Johanna's own seat. This only made the teenager shut her eyes more firmly, if possible.

Perhaps it was because she had her eyes closed, but as soon as her eyes shot open again she knew she had accidentally drifted off to sleep due to the mild pain she felt at the right base of her neck and the trail of fresh drool on the side of her chin. Growing used to the turbulence, the plane's rocking only just lulled her back to sleep as quickly as she had woken up.

She drifted in and out of sleep and although she would jerk her head upward every now and then to stay awake, despite it feeling like seconds she could tell somewhat that it had been over an hour since the plane has entered the air pocket causing all this disturbance.  _'They should be close to landing at this point, right?'_  Before sleep could wash over her again, the plane suddenly jerked violently to the side.

 

-

 

_'KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!'_

Such violent and bloodthirsty thoughts were usually foreign to young children. Yet at the age of ten, sitting dirtied and bloodied on the cold cage floor, seeing a knife stabbed into the bare torso of a child too similar to him, fearing for both the boy on the table and for his own fate that would follow as such, it would also be unusual for him  _not_ to have such thoughts.

After endless days of harassment, food deprivation, isolation, and the haunting memories of his family's and servants' corpses, even the toughest minds are bound to break. He could still see Sebastian's mangled corpse laying right next to his parents' which were just as-

'Oh'

A velvety voice unlike those of his tormentors, slipped into his mind. The young boy held his breath for a moment trying to catch what that voice. It seemed amused, but a very different sort of amusement from those that were about to kill him. If anything, this was a more sick kind, and much more  _demonic_. But to the child it was new, and different. It was the  _change_ , as of the moment, to his tortuously useless lifestyle.

The room was engulfed in a sudden darkness, which then began to gather in one spot and solidify into a humanoid being.

A series of astonished yelps and gasps filled the room, including a masked man who was flinching backwards with his jaw slackened in disbelief, "I-It really showed up!"

Another masked mad, this one albeit more excited threw himself at the dark figure. "Grant me eternal life and wealth!" The pot-bellied man yelled gleefully, as if the entity were a genie. And maybe he was. But not the type that would come out of a lamp and grant people wishes simply for 'freeing' him.

 

-

 

The flight attendant who was walking down the aisle, using the headrests of the seats to balance herself tripped over her own feet when the plane jerked. Although it was a cause for commotion when it had happened, instantly after one of the crew came too look at the situation, the air turbulence calmed down until it went away and the plane was stable again.

Another crew member joined the first as they assisted the flight attendant, who seemed to have only sprained her ankle, to the front where she was to be treated.

The turbulence left all the passengers into a lapse of tense silence, and even after some time had passed and the seat-belt light went off, the whispers that flitted around the cabin was still at a minimum.

Johanna smiled at her grandparents sitting across the aisle from her. They were comforting each other in hushed words with their hands intertwined together.

 

-

 

"FIRE!"

As soon as Baldroy and the rest of the soldiers at camp arrived at the shooting scene, they knew that it wasn't a simple one. Although the enemy didn't have many men, they seemed to be individually skilled and very young, some of them teenagers even. Everything was completely disorganized on both sides.

The very few civilians that were present weren't doing a very good job helping them either. A few were still running in the sidelines looking for shelter, and those that  _were_ able to find cover from the firing range had their backs or sides wide open.

There was already a civilian lying flat on the ground and bleeding. Baldroy couldn't make out if the man was still alive but judging by the amount of blood that was seeping around him, Baldroy could tell the body was no longer worth his attention. There were several others in more need of it.

As soon as one of their comrades behind a building spotted Baldroy, he waved him over and the others followed suite as they ran to shelter.

"Any updates!?" Baldroy yelled over the gunfire. The ringing seemed to get louder now that they were closer to the fight.

"Three of our men down! So far, only two civilians spotted dead and some others injured!"

"Who's the highest ranking official giving orders right now!?"

"Well... it's you Corporal, sir," the soldier said looking away as he addressed Baldroy.

"WHAT!?"

"First Lieutenant Rhodes was taken down as soon as the fight started with two other friendly, sir!"

Baldroy scratched his head in frustration, swatting a mosquito away with his long gun. "Agh. So much for rank."

 

-

 

Just as everyone had calmed down enough for the majority to take off their seat belts again, the plane shook violently. Some grew overly silent again while a select few groaned in frustration as they patted around their seats for the belts. Before everyone could fasten their belts however, the plane dropped no doubt over a hundred metres in the air, maybe even two or three hundred, throwing people out of their seats violently.

Heads hit the ceiling, bodies were thrown to the sides so harshly that the interior skin of the plane rattled cracked, some might have even lost their lives right then and there and nobody would've been able to check anyway considering what took place next.

People began screaming and crying but before those thrown around and still conscious could even find a grip, the plane tilted over 90 degrees to the left and began hurtle downwards through the atmosphere.

 

-

 

The demon's eyes swept over the gaping audience, looking for the man who has summoned him. His eyes came upon the child in his cage and he instantly told himself, ' _It's this one_ '. He smirked.

'Well aren't you...' the man smiled cruelly as he walked towards the cage, 'a very small master'

The voice clearly echoed in the boy's head. And he was so sure he was the only one in the room hearing it.

'You have summoned me. This fact will not change for eternity. You have given a big sacrifice. Now it's your choice whether to make a contract with a demon and have your wishes granted, or not. The price to  _cross the river_  has already been paid. What has been sacrificed will never be returned. Now... choose.' The demon licked his lips in both satisfaction for the appetizer, and anticipation for the main course.

The boy had no reason to gulp. His mouth and throat were so dry from thirst and his screaming from when they burned a mark on him. He hasn't spoken in so long, and he had no idea what else life had to offer after all the suffering he's been through. But, he knew this was a chance. A chance to wreak vengeance upon those who have humiliated him and massacred the members of his household.

Grabbing that chance, he steeled his voice. "I-," he coughed violently, "I-," his voice very much like nails scratching on a chalkboard, "I want power."

"Wh-!?" A man from the audience yelled, "SOMEONE SHUT HIM UP!"

Child as he was though, he knew it wasn’t a man he bargaining with. It was a wild beast, that wouldn’t think twice about turning against him if ever given the chance.

"THE POWER TO TAKE REVENGE ON THE ONES WHO DID THIS TO US!"

 

-

 

Johanna was one of those who didn't have their seat belts on when the plane began to fall. The first time the plane fell, her head met with the ceiling where the overhead compartments were and she was thrown back to the floor lying across the aisle. Her vision went dark and her side stung so badly. Her entire body seemed to be aching.

She looked of to see her grandmother staring at her in horror. Johanna struggled to get up and stop her from doing anything reckless, but her grandma unbuckled her own seat-belt to help her up. That was when the plane tilted.

Johanna fell back towards her side of the plane except, she was lying on the wall, and her spine hit so hard that her back coiled in pain. As if that wasn't enough, her grandma fell right on top of her. What scared her so badly was not her own bones breaking, but hearing a crack from her grandmother's small body.

Everything else happened so quickly Johanna could hardly process it. She could just remember her feelings. The pain, both on a physical, mental and emotional level that raked through both her mind and body. The plane must have nose-dived because she remembered being thrown forwards, over the heads of buckled and screaming passengers.

She was hugging her grandmother so tightly and felt her grandma's head fall limp over one of her arms.

The plane's walls spiraled around them. Round and round so quickly, until Johanna couldn't make out the walls and all she saw was a mixture of colours, a blinding white, just like the shooting star she saw earlier that night, and then it was raining bullets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title is a wordplay of the song/saying 'When you wish upon a star'. The story's cover is not mine in any way and is painted by the Polish architect and freelance illustrator, Maja Wronska. Like the canon (manga), this fanfiction does not rely a lot on historical events.


	2. Chapter 2 - Pooh who?

**Chapter 2 - Pooh who?**

Blinking the white spots and discolouration from her vision, she soon realised why her eyelids refused to stay open. Even though she was pretty sure that it had been early in the night when the plane started its flight, it was daylight all around her. Thing is, she was pretty sure she wasn't out for more than a few minutes. Her ears were ringing and the surrounding noise was dampened and she felt as if the air had been sucked out of her ears.

The soil underneath her fingers were dry and thin and from what little she could see every time her eyes escaped the shield of her eyelids, the sun was high in the sky signifying that it was around noon.

'Did we crash into some uncharted island? Impossible! The plane had only been flying over mainland the whole time, and it's not that the country was close to any seas or oceans to begin with. The plane hadn't even crossed any borders.'

Johanna moved the arm shading her face only to be surprised that she could even move it at all. 'If we had crashed I should be dead by now,' she thought as she shifted her legs from under her. She couldn't feel any pain. In fact, she couldn't feel anything at all other than the tips of her fingers and toes.

It was normal not to be able to feel your arm as it moved, but considering the injuries she should have sustained from the plane, she didn't feel the pain even though her body was spotted in bruises and doused with enough blood to be concerning. She slapped her own forearm and didn't feel anything but a sharp sting on the tip of her fingers of the offending hand.

When she moved her legs out in front of her, she couldn't even feel her thighs nor heels scraping against the ground. And her knees, ' _MY GAWD_ ,' her mind reeling as she noted how wrongly bent her right leg was. She looked away quickly, not failing to see some bone peeking out dangerously through her skin. It was as if her body had fallen asleep without the throbbing pain of pins and needles, which she would've found fascinating had it been any other time, but was as of now, plain  _horrifying_.

All of a sudden someone seemed to knocked into her from behind. She couldn't feel it from her torso, but the sudden stabbing sensation from inside the back of her head and her downward shift in vision told was enough for her to know so.

A wounded and heavily dirtied face shot into view. The man was blond in a way similar to a rare fraction of her people but he also looked very, very Western just like a few of the tourists she had seen from afar walking around her town. Or the fewer half-blood children she had caught glimpses of that studied in the only private and prestigious school around town.

From the movement of his lips she could tell she was saying something that she couldn't seem to catch.

Even if she concentrated on whatever muffled noise she could hear, the clamour surrounding the two of them was loud enough to distort the man's message. As if that isn't enough, he might not even be speaking her language.

"What?!" Johanna said loudly in the English taught at her school. The man seemed to pause and before he could start off again Johanna decided to push on to gauge the man's understanding of the language, if he could even understand it at all. "Repeat please!"

The man's lips parted signalling that he was going to start speaking. Her eyebrows furrowed ever the slightest as she tried to read his lips, absorbing every detail and attempting to commit it to memory.

This might've sounded pretty cool but the man was rushed and finished his long line in under five seconds disappointing the girl.

As if that wasn't enough she had this whole translating thing to do mentally.

Johanna was about to say something again but stopped herself shortly. She wanted to tell the guy to slow down but couldn't remember the word in English. She scolded herself mentally reminding herself that it was the basic adjectives and that they've learnt it since elementary but it just wouldn't come out.

You know that feeling when you're about to say something, you know what you were going to say and it's right on the tip of your tongue but you just can't seem to get your brain to process it and have it vocalized? It was precisely that feeling.

Stupidly, Johanna instead repeated, only this time louder, "REPEAT PLEASE!" The man gritted his teeth visibly for a moment and then started talking again. He was only albeit slower this time and Johanna could make out that the movements of his lips were similar to the last. So he did understand then.

Problem is, she still couldn't get a single thing he said. Just as she started to say 'repeat please' again the man cut her off as he gripped her by the sides of her arms and straightened her up to a standing position so quickly and swiftly that her headache disappeared for a split second right before it crashed back down, the piercing agony stronger than before.

Air seemed to fill her ears and so did the noise. There were a multitude of them, mostly screaming and the undeniable sound of gunshots. Her vision sharpened and she could now really take a look around her.

They were in some place between a savanna and a desert, in the middle of some village that would fight just right for a Wild West movie set. If there weren't any people all over the place, the buildings might even look like the ghost towns she'd seen in videos on the Internet. Something blew up somewhere beside them and splinters of wood flew all over. It was then that she saw the corpses and the blood.

Her voice got stuck in her throat and her jaw dropped as she released a silent scream. And it wasn't just from the sight of the bloody warzone.

She could feel again.

_And it fucking hurts._

~ O ~

Soldiers and civilians alike were scurrying all over the rapidly perishing village. They were scarcely armed and unprepared for the whole situation and can't do anything else but evacuate and retreat.

As the currently commanding officer Baldroy had to ensure that he stays alive of course, but on top of that he had to make sure no ally or civilian is left behind. They had enough casualties as it is and they certainly wouldn't want any captives.

As everyone gushed towards the outskirts of the village to flee, Baldroy fought his way in for the fourth time that day, going back and forth to aid civilians in escaping to the ongoing massacre.

"There's someone! Trapped.” The nameless soldier panted, “Caught in the gunfire at the courtyard!"

Baldroy cussed colourfully, wiping off the bloody sweat on his forehead with his forearm, "What stupid basta-"

"It's a lady, sir!"

"Well fuck that bitch!" Baldroy patted the faceless soldier on the shoulder. "Fetch a squad or something will ya?! Bunch'a kids upstairs," the blonde nodded his head towards the building they were hiding against where they could see shadows of heads shadows pressed up against the windows and looking down at them. "I'll take care of the other one!"

Pushing the soldier on his way, Baldroy slipped to the side of the building scanning the road. Across the road, a few metres away from the pub opposite to where he was crouching, lay not a lady at all but a child. A very mangled one. "Tch." Taking note of dingy and fragile building, he took off, huddling as fast as he could to avoid the bullets, and slamming into the girl from behind.

 _'Ouch'_  he cringed not for himself, but for the girl who was already beaten up as it is. He crawled in front of her making himself known. "Hey we gotta get ya outta here, ya hear me?!"

The poor kid looked so out of it, not even looking at him in the eye and all.

"What?!"

Startled Baldroy continued, "C'mon look at me. If you don't get up w-"

"Repeat please!"

The girl wasn't even meeting his eyes. Sighing he started, "We gotta get outta 'ere so getta fuck up or we're both dead!"

Her eyebrows were crunched up in concentration and he figured that she wasn't blankly looking forward but that her eyes were intently fixed on his mouth. She opened her mouth, keeping Baldroy's lips pursed but her next two words only had him gritting his teeth in frustration.

Getting impatient Baldroy shouted this time slower and louder, "We gotta get outta here missy, so will help me get ya up without makin' it hurt anymore for ya?"

And before she can say anything more, he pulled her up, threw her over his shoulder as quickly and gently as he could and ran into the pub for cover, the kid screaming behind his back in a tone so high-pitched that he wouldn't have heard it had she been as far as standing in front of him.

A bullet scraped the side of his head just above his ear. "Shit!" He threw the doors open, and ran knocking over tables and chairs and jumping over the counter.

Kneeling as he put the girl down he got to work, eyes sweeping over her body to look for any fatal injuries and bleeding that needed stopping. He wasn't a medic but he could at least keep her alive until the real docs arrived. He turned her body both sides and prodded around slightly, the girl yelling, groaning and hissing as he did so.

A couple of fractures, broken ribs, dislocated leg, but other than a few scrapes no visible external injuries. No bullet wound even, which was surprising considering that she was sitting wide open in the middle of the road without cover. The only thing that looked dangerous was the femur that was sticking out of her skin right above the knee cap of her dislocated right leg.

She wasn't trashing, coughing up blood or unconscious so her broken bones hadn't pierced any vital organs at least. He couldn't tell if it was worse than what he had discovered so far but she wasn't dying yet so he decided it was good enough.

Baldroy stood up only for the wooden counter to be blown up into chips and dust. "Agh!" He ducked. His hands went above his head hovering over the rifle that was strapped across his back. Only for his green orbs to meet the tired ones of the kid he rescued. Another sigh from him. He clasped his handgun instead.

He opened the cupboard under the bar and threw a round bottle of gin over the counter and towards the assailant.

The pieces shattered midair startling the opponent making him shoot at the counter again. Wooden dust covered the counter and a bullet from behind the bar came into the guy's line of vision hitting him between his eyebrows before he can move away.

Another bullet hit Baldroy in the shoulder forcing him to dodge. "Another one of 'em!" 'Bullet came from somewhere to the left so...' He scuttled to his left behind the counter just as a head popped over it hovering over the barrel of Baldroy's handgun. The girl flinched, the sound of the gun going off, enough to mask the splattering sound that followed.

Unfamiliar shouting voices gradually grew louder from right outside the building and it was when they heard a gunshot that sounded awfully close that Baldroy announced, "That's our cue!" approaching the girl to pick her up. She recoils just as he reaches out at her making him frown for a second.

Rubbing off any expression that might be deemed unfriendly from his face, and smiling warmly Baldroy attempted to soothe her, "Hey, I'm a soldier, see?" He pointed at his red uniform with spotted with badges around the chest. "I ain't the bad fella 'ere."

Tugging the leather strap under his chin, he took off his hat and offered it to her as a token of peace. The girl cautiously brought her hand up, her eyes still glued to his as she did so, but flinched as her arm rose.

Another gunshot.

Baldroy quickly planted the hat on her head, the too big of an accessory falling all the way down to her ears and shielding her eyes. He cradled his rifle under his right arm and threw her over left shoulder, this time albeit more delicately just to be thoughtful of her injury but the pressure on her torso still had her wincing. "Sorry kiddo, fastest way to go ya' know?. If we wanna get outta 'ere in one piece, can't have ya' handicappin' me."

The doors of the bar flew open but not before the duo darted into the kitchen at the far end of the room behind the bar.

"It's clean!"

"No wait! Aren't them folks o' one of us?! Two of our own down!"

"Ya' bettin' they still in 'ere?!"

"We ain't gonna go barkin' at knots! Just burn the whole damn place!"

Nearly half a dozen of grenades rolled into the kitchen catching Baldroy's eye and compelling him to hasten in slamming the butt of his rifle against the knob of the locked back door. They slipped out of the building just as it blew up behind them but were still caught in the discharge and were flung in the air.

As they rolled over in the sand, he couldn't help but cuss all over again. _'The print on those shells! No wonder they're using so much munition carelessly. They nagged 'em from us!'_

~ O ~

Spitting the dirt off her face as she rolled over Johanna moaned, "Uvduj baaina." only to remember that the guy she was with, the soldier, wouldn't know understand. "Pain! PAIN!"

The man's attention was instantly on her and he scrambled over to where she was muttering a quick apology. "Come on kid, gotta get outta 'ere quick. Seein' as how they're goin' into buildings and burnin' it all, the rest of us got outta here already."

Johanna barely understood half of that. He was butchering it with his accent anyway so she figured she wasn't at fault for it. She got the gist of it though. They had to run away as far away as possible.

The man beckoned her to get on his back and she climbed on scruffily making them both almost fall over despite the fact that he seemed to have firm footing in any other situation. He lifted her further so he could hold her up on his back with his hands. "There's a meetup spot where we had trucks come in after we heard of the attack. They might be waitin' 'til sunset or 'nother ambush before they take off. Let's be hopin' it ain't the latter."

And they started walking.

Johanna couldn't really do anything much at this point. She was starting to get used to the throbbing pain anyway so she snuggled into the back of the man her eyelids drooping lazily every now and then. It was quiet between them, neither saying a word.

The skies might have been getting darker when Johanna heard a constant thudding on the ground and distant chatter, but the lousy hat was obscuring her vision again.

The man carrying her shouted and one of his hands disappeared from under her.

"HEY! OVER 'ERE! STOP! WE'RE HERE!"

And she felt him start running. The chattering sounds grew louder and the thudding noise disappeared or maybe it just got drowned out. It was a few minutes until the noises were all around her and she started to panic.

"Corporal! You're alive!"

"'Course I am," the now familiar voice replied. "Let's get this kid on the trucks."

"Glad to see ya!"

"Thought you were a goner there."

"Wasn't so sure you'd make it."

The tall hat on her head hit something above them making it slide back, in turn returning her sight. She was still on the man's back and was peering not at a truck, but into some wooden wagon with a canvas roof draped over its frame.

She was dropped ungracefully on one of the two benches pressed against opposite sides of the vehicle and the blonde sat next to her. A couple more soldiers who she assumed were the ones to talk to him outside filtered into the small cramped space, making them six in total.

The vehicle started moving, and  _wow_ was the pace unbearingly slow. 'Not thudding,' Johanna's brain facepalmed, 'it's the clapping of goddamn horse hooves!'

"No need for 'em big eyes, girlie," the man opposite to her gave a crooked smile after noticing the wince in her expression. "You ain't nothing to be a'fraid of. If anythin' you gotta be grateful and feelin' safer surrounded by all these big morons round you and I for protection." A bout of both snickering and protests went around the men.

"Would've put you in with the others, but they went ahead and they're all full anyways," another guy offered kindly. For once, the accent seemed to be less pronounced and Johanna finally understood clearly what he said!

But in contrast to that great achievement all she could say was a stupid, "Oh," before she fell silent again, her mind still turning over the recent events in her head and trying to make something out of it.

Her thoughts were about to get consumed in her now absolutely awake mind (guess the brain facepalm did the trick) before the blonde who had helped her started. "Gotta name?"

She looked up at him only to find him staring intently at her and she shielded her eyes quickly, looking down at her cartoon-themed socks.

Sensing her hesitation, he decided to take the lead, "My name's Baldroy. You?"

She was quiet for a moment and held a brief staring competition with the Winnie print on her socks. He was adorable despite his ignorance but she liked Tiger more between the two, even if he was really just as ignorant. But the even more than the two of them the character she liked best was-

"Roo," she said out of the blue, not even realizing she had spoken aloud.

"What?"

"What?"  _'He heard that?!'_

"So you're name's Rue? Like Sue or?"

"What? No! No. I mean okay. Yes. My said- I said Roo."

"So Rue? The name's Rue, am I gettin' it right?"

'Bond. Roo Bond,' she slapped herself internally another time. "E-Eeyore?"

“Well kid, is it Bond or Eeyore?”

“Eeyore,” she said a little more firmly. She didn’t think she’d be able to handle being called a Bond-anything without breaking into laughter at the overly spent joke. Eeyore was bearable. And it sounded like a good English name. At least, that’s how she believed English names might sound like. Western names, she’s realized before is either a solid surname, like Robins or Evans, or a combination of words, like Copper-field and Fair-child.

"Rue Eeyore."

'But he does get that I'm kidding right? Doesn't he watch television or something?' She wiggled her feet clad in the Pooh pair of socks. 'Damn, military really does some intense brainwashing' "Yes," she confirmed. '…if you want it that.'

She looked at the other men to see if anyone got her joke and was giggling at the Baldroy guy's obliviousness. No one.

A man from the opposite corner spoke silently for the first time since she got in. "Doesn't sound like a name from around here." Looking at her in the eye he asked sternly, " _Where're you from?_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Johanna lives in a slightly remote town in a province. The populace is fairly acquainted with international trends via social media. Johanna though, isn’t one for riding on with trends as they come and go, despite being geeky on pop culture.   
> It sounds contradicting, but it really does happen to certain people.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - No Such Place as Home**

Johanna sprung up quickly after she had been unceremoniously dumped in the prison hold and did what any teenager her age would do - yell out all known indecencies to any of her captors within hearing range, hoping that one of them would get affected by it enough to get pissed and let her free.

Hope has always been the most exploited.

It must've been nearly half a day later that her trashing slowly drew itself to a halt. She'd only paused in all her screaming once to inhale the extremely dry bread (and a small serving of it, mind you) that was served two hours prior without any any water to wash it down. 

Her body had given out a long time ago, legs folded under her and torso slumped against the wooden bars of the cell. Her hand was stretched out between the wooden bars. Small as she may be, she'd have to starve herself a couple more days to be thin enough to slip through them. And the hazard of splinters looked deadly. More of infectious sort than deep.

After the question regarding her identity was dropped during the ride in the truck, the soldiers around her perked up and showed a dramatic increase in vigilance towards her. She seemed suspicious, yes, but she found it unfair how they could be so skeptical of a kid such as her herself.

Most of those in her age group, she knew, would stubbornly say that they were matured and as responsible as any adult, and refused to be called a kid because that term was reserved for bratty toddlers. Johanna, on the other hand, found comfort in being called a kid precisely because she could be as bratty as she wanted to be without worrying about what the adults thought. They'd excuse her behaviour every time because who can blame her when she was 'only just a kid'.

That was one of the many reasons she decided not to reserve her feelings and let out all of her frustration, at first with a childish pout and stamping of the foot, to a full on flurry of punching and kicking limbs when they carried her into a dreary looking tent and restrained her to a hard but clothed bed.

The nurse was undoubtedly tempted to use sedatives after earning a bloody nose and red cheek but the doctor in charge quickly rushed over and shooed her away before a full blown war can set off in a medical tent of all places.

To sum it up, Johanna's body was fixed back into the best shape they could possibly have gotten her back in within such a short period of time and given their  _primitive_ technology. Apparently she was in such a bad condition that the doctor protested against having her locked up in the dingy cell. That makes one person on her side. Somewhat. They still got to lock her up anyway.

The soldiers were called out shortly after being informed that they had a meeting and that the interrogation of all captives and other individuals would wait until after it. Considering the state of her treatment, she was labelled 'captive' and not 'individual', huh? Hooray.

While Johanna wallowed in shallow misery in the shed's makeshift prison, the command tent was buzzing with tension as their newly arrived commanding officer bombarded the others with questions.

"It was outta nowhere, sir. Took us completely by surpri-"

"NO ATTACK STARTS OUTTA NOWHERE!" The large man roared. "I need  _details_! Who fired the first shot? Where was the outbreak? Was it a civilian or soldier who shot first? Was shot at first?!" He bore down on the soldiers he walked by, staring down at an unfortunate soldier who he last made eye contact after ending his rant.

The poor guy broke out in a cold sweat, and stammered out a weak reply. "W-W-We-Well-"

"WAS NO ONE THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED?!" the Lieutenant bellowed. Baldroy had to give it to the lil' guy. Despite being pushed into a corner, he'd yet to break eye contact with the beast. Whether it was out of fear or stupidity, it was still a feat considering the now smoldering eyes of his senior.

"W-Well sir, w-whoever may have called in 'bout attack first, sir, they must be gone now, sir."

Lieutenant Buckner stopped in his pacing, shoulders sagging as he leaned over the centre-most table, a thick layer of maps strewn over it. "So how do we report this?! How do we figure out the intent behind this- this whole damn situation!?" He yelled tiredly. "When we start on the 100 page report I don't wanna see 'Satan' or 'Hell' written down a dozen times per page! Ya'll think like you're one o' 'em puny Brits still don't ya? 'They took us by surprise!' WELL WE ALREADY NOW THAT DON'T WE?! I don't need your feelings or yer tears cause them petty fussing ain't gonna help us the next time this happens again! And guess what? We ain't gonna be able to prepare for something like this the next time it happens cause we don't even fucking know how it went down this time!"

"Calm down, Cap," Bardroy intervened, the older man snarling at the title, "The report can wait till later but right now we know one thing for sure. They've gotta hold on our arms somehow."

"Sir, if I may?" someone called from the back of the tent.

A small nod of the commandeer's head and everyone looked on at the tall, lanky soldier who shuffled toward the centre of the crowd.

The man didn't cower under all the eyes on him, but his eyes glinted with a hint of timidness as he spoke, "The shooters. They're all rebels who's joined up with those from the south. But they ain't even men. They're kids." Nods of confirmation went around the tent. "Teenage boys with no idea what they're doing. Either they have a leader among them, or they're all just a part of some smaller picture. They've got a lot of influence, sure. But I don't think think they're as organized as we make them out to be. Either way, our best shot at getting answers is by interrogation and I think we might just have caught one of 'em."

~ O ~

They didn't just catch _just_ one of them. There were two, really. It's just that the other died of the multiple gunshot wounds right as they sought him out for interrogation. The medics apologized for that before informing them about the already stabilized conditioned of the other child. As soon as the Lieutenant got word of it he marched straight toward the shed, Baldroy and Dewey at his heels.

"Real posh accent ya got there, soldier," he commented at the latter without looking back. "From the city, ye?" 

"Yes, sir!" Came the stiff reply. No other words were exchanged till they stood before the bars.

She didn't look like a Mexican that's one thing for sure. If the Lieutenant had to guess, he'd say that she looked more like the love child between one of their own and some illegal Asian immigrant. Her skin was fair, as if she's never even once worked or played under the sun. But then again, the light complexion might just be inherited from a Chinos bloodline.

Other than that she didn't look anything upperclass. Though that may be partially due to her battered appearance. She wore the sleeves and jumpsuit of any working boy, although the it did seem a lot brighter than it normally should. They looked of a tougher, thicker material too, which meant it was a lot more expensive than he initially made out to be. And her socks were extremely short with coloured pictures of hybrid animals that looked too detailed to have been embroidered into the cotton. Her clothes looked poor, sure, but the material was too good to have been affordable to a low-class citizen.

"Hi," the girl called out to the shorter man behind him. The Lieutenant raised a brow at the blonde. "You've met Corporal."

"Brought 'er here, Lieutenant."

"Ah, so it was you who captured her," he said appraisingly.

"Not exactly captured, sir. Thought she didn't look local at all but believed her to be a civvie, still. Lil' lady hadn't any arms on her person."

All three pair of eyes swivelled toward the girl to reassess their verdict.

"He saved my life," she said slowly, assuming that they wanted a testimony. "I have... very thanks." The Lieutenant caught on to her faltering speech.

"You don't speak English very well, do ya' kid? Spanish?"

The girl nodded negative. "Mongol."

"Mongol...? Never heard that before!" Dewey exclaimed.

Johanna was stumped. Sure she knew that her country might not be the most popular among little kids around the world, but that it's unheard of? Unbelievable. I mean it's nice that they've never been on the news for dirt, but come on!

Racking her mind for more English, she pressed, "Near China?"

"So you're Chinese?" Baldroy, queried.

"No! No. Down-Low. More low of Russia. You know? Mongolia?"

"Sounds familiar," The man in the front spoke. "Heard of the Mongol Empire?" he addressed his two juniors. Seeing as they were still clueless, he continued. "It's history, it is. Note very popular. Right now that area is under the rule of the Qing Empire, or Dynasty, whatever they like to call it. We know it 'ere as China. Then again anyone Asian we see around 'ere usually is Chinese or Jap." His eyes locked unto the girls, who was now standing, leaning against the bars. "You say you're from there?"

"Yes."

"Well, Mongolia doesn't exist as a nation, kid. It's not even all that autonomous. So unless you want to spend the night here where they'll bring in the horses later, you better come up with a better lie before dinner."

Johanna's heart fell as they turned, the blonde man saluting with a wave of his fingers as they walked past the door. Her insides felt twisted and the mention of dinner didn't help with her grumbling stomach.

As she fell to the ground for the umpteenth time that day, she sourly cursed the men who must have been enjoying lunch as she waited for dinnertime to come around, her non-existant 'breakfast' from the plane forgotten already as tried to think up an excuse and better English, because she really, really didn't want to think about  _that event_  just yet without first ensuring her survival.

Mongolia wasn't an independent nation yet? Of course! If they're still Wild Westing here, somehow she's been dropped in another timeline? I mean, nothing could explain how she got to America from more than halfway across the world without a passport right? Unless... human trafficking? She was pretty sure she had barely fallen unconscious from the plane crashing until the gun shooting. Maybe, her concept of time was hazy from the shock?

_'Calm down, girl._ ' She scolded herself. Organizing her thoughts, she began plotting a mental timeline and listed what she'd need to know exactly what's going on. 

_One. Mongolia became independent, February 13. Easy! That was a national holiday, for goodness sake! Year...? 1991? 1992. Alright, we're getting there._

_Two. Wild West? Isn't that 30s?_ A fuzzy memory of a gecko being thrown around by cars came to mind.  _But no. That's fictional and all... right? Their technology. Maybe 1910 at the latest? Around the late 19th century then?_

_Three. Before independence, it was the Soviet. But. But... they mentioned China. 'Ah-toe-nah-mess?' What word did he use? They mentioned China. And the Mongolia was under the protection of China back in the 19th century, right?_  Silently she thanked her history teacher, for drilling all this in her mind. Playing safe, she took a sharp piece of gravel and started scratching down key points in the dirt.  _But I need to know more, arghhh!_

'Why didn't I ever bother with specifics?'

Deciding to just give up because thinking hurt, she slouched adjacent to the bars facing the only entrance and exit to the room.

'They said the horses would come to sleep here, right? Right. Let's just hope the next person that walks through that door isn't a soldier, and can spare hearing me out properly.' She thought of her English. 'Huh. Well whatever I'm unable to say I'm sure I can describe with my hands. If I'm lucky I can even get a date no problem.' Johanna lifted her aching heavily bandaged arms. 'Maybe they'll send a nurse?'

Recalling the nasty punch she gave the nurse, she winced. _'Or not.'_

She glared at the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Johanna favorite movie pertaining the Wild West is Rango.  
> PS. It's a great film.

**Author's Note:**

> Donate your thoughts to help this pathetic Author-ssi develop. Or maybe just for conversation, I don't mind. 
> 
> Kudos are love. Even guests can kudos. Anonymously. Shout-out to all them feeling shady peeps.


End file.
